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  <div class="section" id="module-configparser">
<span id="configparser-configuration-file-parser"></span><h1>14.2. <a class="reference internal" href="#module-configparser" title="configparser: Configuration file parser."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">configparser</span></tt></a> &#8212; Configuration file parser<a class="headerlink" href="#module-configparser" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p id="index-0">This module provides the <a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.ConfigParser" title="configparser.ConfigParser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">ConfigParser</span></tt></a> class which implements a basic
configuration language which provides a structure similar to what&#8217;s found in
Microsoft Windows INI files.  You can use this to write Python programs which
can be customized by end users easily.</p>
<div class="admonition note">
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
<p class="last">This library does <em>not</em> interpret or write the value-type prefixes used in
the Windows Registry extended version of INI syntax.</p>
</div>
<div class="admonition seealso">
<p class="first admonition-title">See also</p>
<dl class="last docutils">
<dt>Module <a class="reference internal" href="shlex.html#module-shlex" title="shlex: Simple lexical analysis for Unix shell-like languages."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">shlex</span></tt></a></dt>
<dd>Support for a creating Unix shell-like mini-languages which can be used
as an alternate format for application configuration files.</dd>
<dt>Module <a class="reference internal" href="json.html#module-json" title="json: Encode and decode the JSON format."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">json</span></tt></a></dt>
<dd>The json module implements a subset of JavaScript syntax which can also
be used for this purpose.</dd>
</dl>
</div>
<div class="section" id="quick-start">
<h2>14.2.1. Quick Start<a class="headerlink" href="#quick-start" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Let&#8217;s take a very basic configuration file that looks like this:</p>
<div class="highlight-ini"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="k">[DEFAULT]</span>
<span class="na">ServerAliveInterval</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s">45</span>
<span class="na">Compression</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s">yes</span>
<span class="na">CompressionLevel</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s">9</span>
<span class="na">ForwardX11</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s">yes</span>

<span class="k">[bitbucket.org]</span>
<span class="na">User</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s">hg</span>

<span class="k">[topsecret.server.com]</span>
<span class="na">Port</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s">50022</span>
<span class="na">ForwardX11</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s">no</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The structure of INI files is described <a class="reference external" href="#supported-ini-file-structure">in the following section</a>.  Essentially, the file
consists of sections, each of which contains keys with values.
<a class="reference internal" href="#module-configparser" title="configparser: Configuration file parser."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">configparser</span></tt></a> classes can read and write such files.  Let&#8217;s start by
creating the above configuration file programatically.</p>
<div class="highlight-python3"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">configparser</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">config</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">configparser</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">ConfigParser</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">config</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;DEFAULT&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">{</span><span class="s">&#39;ServerAliveInterval&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s">&#39;45&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>                     <span class="s">&#39;Compression&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s">&#39;yes&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>                     <span class="s">&#39;CompressionLevel&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s">&#39;9&#39;</span><span class="p">}</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">config</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;bitbucket.org&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">{}</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">config</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;bitbucket.org&#39;</span><span class="p">][</span><span class="s">&#39;User&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s">&#39;hg&#39;</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">config</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;topsecret.server.com&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">{}</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">topsecret</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">config</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;topsecret.server.com&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">topsecret</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;Port&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s">&#39;50022&#39;</span>     <span class="c"># mutates the parser</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">topsecret</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;ForwardX11&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s">&#39;no&#39;</span>  <span class="c"># same here</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">config</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;DEFAULT&#39;</span><span class="p">][</span><span class="s">&#39;ForwardX11&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s">&#39;yes&#39;</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="k">with</span> <span class="nb">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;example.ini&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;w&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">configfile</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>  <span class="n">config</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">write</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">configfile</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="gp">...</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>As you can see, we can treat a config parser much like a dictionary.
There are differences, <a class="reference external" href="#mapping-protocol-access">outlined later</a>, but
the behavior is very close to what you would expect from a dictionary.</p>
<p>Now that we have created and saved a configuration file, let&#8217;s read it
back and explore the data it holds.</p>
<div class="highlight-python3"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">configparser</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">config</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">configparser</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">ConfigParser</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">config</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">sections</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="go">[]</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">config</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">read</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;example.ini&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">[&#39;example.ini&#39;]</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">config</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">sections</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="go">[&#39;bitbucket.org&#39;, &#39;topsecret.server.com&#39;]</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="s">&#39;bitbucket.org&#39;</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">config</span>
<span class="go">True</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="s">&#39;bytebong.com&#39;</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">config</span>
<span class="go">False</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">config</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;bitbucket.org&#39;</span><span class="p">][</span><span class="s">&#39;User&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span>
<span class="go">&#39;hg&#39;</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">config</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;DEFAULT&#39;</span><span class="p">][</span><span class="s">&#39;Compression&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span>
<span class="go">&#39;yes&#39;</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">topsecret</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">config</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;topsecret.server.com&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">topsecret</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;ForwardX11&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span>
<span class="go">&#39;no&#39;</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">topsecret</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;Port&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span>
<span class="go">&#39;50022&#39;</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">key</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">config</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;bitbucket.org&#39;</span><span class="p">]:</span> <span class="nb">print</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">key</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="gp">...</span>
<span class="go">user</span>
<span class="go">compressionlevel</span>
<span class="go">serveraliveinterval</span>
<span class="go">compression</span>
<span class="go">forwardx11</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">config</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;bitbucket.org&#39;</span><span class="p">][</span><span class="s">&#39;ForwardX11&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span>
<span class="go">&#39;yes&#39;</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>As we can see above, the API is pretty straightforward.  The only bit of magic
involves the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">DEFAULT</span></tt> section which provides default values for all other
sections <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id13" id="id1">[1]</a>.  Note also that keys in sections are
case-insensitive and stored in lowercase <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id13" id="id2">[1]</a>.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="supported-datatypes">
<h2>14.2.2. Supported Datatypes<a class="headerlink" href="#supported-datatypes" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Config parsers do not guess datatypes of values in configuration files, always
storing them internally as strings.  This means that if you need other
datatypes, you should convert on your own:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="nb">int</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">topsecret</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;Port&#39;</span><span class="p">])</span>
<span class="go">50022</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="nb">float</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">topsecret</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;CompressionLevel&#39;</span><span class="p">])</span>
<span class="go">9.0</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Extracting Boolean values is not that simple, though.  Passing the value
to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">bool()</span></tt> would do no good since <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">bool('False')</span></tt> is still
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt>.  This is why config parsers also provide <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">getboolean()</span></tt>.
This method is case-insensitive and recognizes Boolean values from
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'yes'</span></tt>/<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'no'</span></tt>, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'on'</span></tt>/<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'off'</span></tt> and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'1'</span></tt>/<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'0'</span></tt> <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id13" id="id3">[1]</a>.
For example:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">topsecret</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">getboolean</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;ForwardX11&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">False</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">config</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;bitbucket.org&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">getboolean</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;ForwardX11&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">True</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">config</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">getboolean</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;bitbucket.org&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;Compression&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">True</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Apart from <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">getboolean()</span></tt>, config parsers also provide equivalent
<tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">getint()</span></tt> and <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">getfloat()</span></tt> methods, but these are far less
useful since conversion using <a class="reference internal" href="functions.html#int" title="int"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">int()</span></tt></a> and <a class="reference internal" href="functions.html#float" title="float"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">float()</span></tt></a> is
sufficient for these types.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="fallback-values">
<h2>14.2.3. Fallback Values<a class="headerlink" href="#fallback-values" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>As with a dictionary, you can use a section&#8217;s <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get()</span></tt> method to
provide fallback values:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">topsecret</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">get</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;Port&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">&#39;50022&#39;</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">topsecret</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">get</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;CompressionLevel&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">&#39;9&#39;</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">topsecret</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">get</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;Cipher&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">topsecret</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">get</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;Cipher&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;3des-cbc&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">&#39;3des-cbc&#39;</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Please note that default values have precedence over fallback values.
For instance, in our example the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'CompressionLevel'</span></tt> key was
specified only in the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'DEFAULT'</span></tt> section.  If we try to get it from
the section <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'topsecret.server.com'</span></tt>, we will always get the default,
even if we specify a fallback:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">topsecret</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">get</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;CompressionLevel&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;3&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">&#39;9&#39;</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>One more thing to be aware of is that the parser-level <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get()</span></tt> method
provides a custom, more complex interface, maintained for backwards
compatibility.  When using this method, a fallback value can be provided via
the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">fallback</span></tt> keyword-only argument:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">config</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">get</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;bitbucket.org&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;monster&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>           <span class="n">fallback</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&#39;No such things as monsters&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">&#39;No such things as monsters&#39;</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The same <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">fallback</span></tt> argument can be used with the <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">getint()</span></tt>,
<tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">getfloat()</span></tt> and <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">getboolean()</span></tt> methods, for example:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="s">&#39;BatchMode&#39;</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">topsecret</span>
<span class="go">False</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">topsecret</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">getboolean</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;BatchMode&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">fallback</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="k">True</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">True</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">config</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;DEFAULT&#39;</span><span class="p">][</span><span class="s">&#39;BatchMode&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s">&#39;no&#39;</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">topsecret</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">getboolean</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;BatchMode&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">fallback</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="k">True</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">False</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="supported-ini-file-structure">
<h2>14.2.4. Supported INI File Structure<a class="headerlink" href="#supported-ini-file-structure" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>A configuration file consists of sections, each led by a <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">[section]</span></tt> header,
followed by key/value entries separated by a specific string (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">=</span></tt> or <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:</span></tt> by
default <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id13" id="id4">[1]</a>).  By default, section names are case sensitive but keys are not
<a class="footnote-reference" href="#id13" id="id5">[1]</a>.  Leading and trailing whitespace is removed from keys and values.
Values can be omitted, in which case the key/value delimiter may also be left
out.  Values can also span multiple lines, as long as they are indented deeper
than the first line of the value.  Depending on the parser&#8217;s mode, blank lines
may be treated as parts of multiline values or ignored.</p>
<p>Configuration files may include comments, prefixed by specific
characters (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">#</span></tt> and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">;</span></tt> by default <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id13" id="id6">[1]</a>).  Comments may appear on
their own on an otherwise empty line, possibly indented. <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id13" id="id7">[1]</a></p>
<p>For example:</p>
<div class="highlight-ini"><div class="highlight"><pre>[Simple Values]
key=value
spaces in keys=allowed
spaces in values=allowed as well
spaces around the delimiter = obviously
you can also use : to delimit keys from values

[All Values Are Strings]
values like this: 1000000
or this: 3.14159265359
are they treated as numbers? : no
integers, floats and booleans are held as: strings
can use the API to get converted values directly: true

[Multiline Values]
chorus: I&#39;m a lumberjack, and I&#39;m okay
    I sleep all night and I work all day

[No Values]
key_without_value
empty string value here =

[You can use comments]
# like this
; or this

# By default only in an empty line.
# Inline comments can be harmful because they prevent users
# from using the delimiting characters as parts of values.
# That being said, this can be customized.

    [Sections Can Be Indented]
        can_values_be_as_well = True
        does_that_mean_anything_special = False
        purpose = formatting for readability
        multiline_values = are
            handled just fine as
            long as they are indented
            deeper than the first line
            of a value
        # Did I mention we can indent comments, too?
</pre></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="interpolation-of-values">
<h2>14.2.5. Interpolation of values<a class="headerlink" href="#interpolation-of-values" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>On top of the core functionality, <a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.ConfigParser" title="configparser.ConfigParser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">ConfigParser</span></tt></a> supports
interpolation.  This means values can be preprocessed before returning them
from <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">get()</span></tt> calls.</p>
<dl class="class">
<dt id="configparser.BasicInterpolation">
<em class="property">class </em><tt class="descclassname">configparser.</tt><tt class="descname">BasicInterpolation</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.BasicInterpolation" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>The default implementation used by <a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.ConfigParser" title="configparser.ConfigParser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">ConfigParser</span></tt></a>.  It enables
values to contain format strings which refer to other values in the same
section, or values in the special default section <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id13" id="id8">[1]</a>.  Additional default
values can be provided on initialization.</p>
<p>For example:</p>
<div class="highlight-ini"><div class="highlight"><pre>[Paths]
home_dir: /Users
my_dir: %(home_dir)s/lumberjack
my_pictures: %(my_dir)s/Pictures
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>In the example above, <a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.ConfigParser" title="configparser.ConfigParser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">ConfigParser</span></tt></a> with <em>interpolation</em> set to
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">BasicInterpolation()</span></tt> would resolve <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">%(home_dir)s</span></tt> to the value of
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">home_dir</span></tt> (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">/Users</span></tt> in this case).  <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">%(my_dir)s</span></tt> in effect would
resolve to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">/Users/lumberjack</span></tt>.  All interpolations are done on demand so
keys used in the chain of references do not have to be specified in any
specific order in the configuration file.</p>
<p>With <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">interpolation</span></tt> set to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt>, the parser would simply return
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">%(my_dir)s/Pictures</span></tt> as the value of <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">my_pictures</span></tt> and
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">%(home_dir)s/lumberjack</span></tt> as the value of <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">my_dir</span></tt>.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="class">
<dt id="configparser.ExtendedInterpolation">
<em class="property">class </em><tt class="descclassname">configparser.</tt><tt class="descname">ExtendedInterpolation</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.ExtendedInterpolation" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>An alternative handler for interpolation which implements a more advanced
syntax, used for instance in <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">zc.buildout</span></tt>. Extended interpolation is
using <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">${section:option}</span></tt> to denote a value from a foreign section.
Interpolation can span multiple levels. For convenience, if the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">section:</span></tt>
part is omitted, interpolation defaults to the current section (and possibly
the default values from the special section).</p>
<p>For example, the configuration specified above with basic interpolation,
would look like this with extended interpolation:</p>
<div class="highlight-ini"><div class="highlight"><pre>[Paths]
home_dir: /Users
my_dir: ${home_dir}/lumberjack
my_pictures: ${my_dir}/Pictures
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Values from other sections can be fetched as well:</p>
<div class="highlight-ini"><div class="highlight"><pre>[Common]
home_dir: /Users
library_dir: /Library
system_dir: /System
macports_dir: /opt/local

[Frameworks]
Python: 3.2
path: ${Common:system_dir}/Library/Frameworks/

[Arthur]
nickname: Two Sheds
last_name: Jackson
my_dir: ${Common:home_dir}/twosheds
my_pictures: ${my_dir}/Pictures
python_dir: ${Frameworks:path}/Python/Versions/${Frameworks:Python}
</pre></div>
</div>
</dd></dl>

</div>
<div class="section" id="mapping-protocol-access">
<h2>14.2.6. Mapping Protocol Access<a class="headerlink" href="#mapping-protocol-access" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<div class="versionadded">
<p><span class="versionmodified">New in version 3.2.</span></p>
</div>
<p>Mapping protocol access is a generic name for functionality that enables using
custom objects as if they were dictionaries.  In case of <a class="reference internal" href="#module-configparser" title="configparser: Configuration file parser."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">configparser</span></tt></a>,
the mapping interface implementation is using the
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">parser['section']['option']</span></tt> notation.</p>
<p><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">parser['section']</span></tt> in particular returns a proxy for the section&#8217;s data in
the parser.  This means that the values are not copied but they are taken from
the original parser on demand.  What&#8217;s even more important is that when values
are changed on a section proxy, they are actually mutated in the original
parser.</p>
<p><a class="reference internal" href="#module-configparser" title="configparser: Configuration file parser."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">configparser</span></tt></a> objects behave as close to actual dictionaries as possible.
The mapping interface is complete and adheres to the
<a class="reference internal" href="collections.abc.html#collections.abc.MutableMapping" title="collections.abc.MutableMapping"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">MutableMapping</span></tt></a> ABC.
However, there are a few differences that should be taken into account:</p>
<ul>
<li><p class="first">By default, all keys in sections are accessible in a case-insensitive manner
<a class="footnote-reference" href="#id13" id="id9">[1]</a>.  E.g. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">for</span> <span class="pre">option</span> <span class="pre">in</span> <span class="pre">parser[&quot;section&quot;]</span></tt> yields only <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">optionxform</span></tt>&#8216;ed
option key names.  This means lowercased keys by default.  At the same time,
for a section that holds the key <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'a'</span></tt>, both expressions return <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt>:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="s">&quot;a&quot;</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">parser</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&quot;section&quot;</span><span class="p">]</span>
<span class="s">&quot;A&quot;</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">parser</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&quot;section&quot;</span><span class="p">]</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</li>
<li><p class="first">All sections include <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">DEFAULTSECT</span></tt> values as well which means that
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">.clear()</span></tt> on a section may not leave the section visibly empty.  This is
because default values cannot be deleted from the section (because technically
they are not there).  If they are overridden in the section, deleting causes
the default value to be visible again.  Trying to delete a default value
causes a <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">KeyError</span></tt>.</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first"><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">DEFAULTSECT</span></tt> cannot be removed from the parser:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>trying to delete it raises <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">ValueError</span></tt>,</li>
<li><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">parser.clear()</span></tt> leaves it intact,</li>
<li><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">parser.popitem()</span></tt> never returns it.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><p class="first"><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">parser.get(section,</span> <span class="pre">option,</span> <span class="pre">**kwargs)</span></tt> - the second argument is <strong>not</strong>
a fallback value. Note however that the section-level <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">get()</span></tt> methods are
compatible both with the mapping protocol and the classic configparser API.</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first"><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">parser.items()</span></tt> is compatible with the mapping protocol (returns a list of
<em>section_name</em>, <em>section_proxy</em> pairs including the DEFAULTSECT).  However,
this method can also be invoked with arguments: <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">parser.items(section,</span> <span class="pre">raw,</span>
<span class="pre">vars)</span></tt>. The latter call returns a list of <em>option</em>, <em>value</em> pairs for
a specified <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">section</span></tt>, with all interpolations expanded (unless
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">raw=True</span></tt> is provided).</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>The mapping protocol is implemented on top of the existing legacy API so that
subclasses overriding the original interface still should have mappings working
as expected.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="customizing-parser-behaviour">
<h2>14.2.7. Customizing Parser Behaviour<a class="headerlink" href="#customizing-parser-behaviour" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>There are nearly as many INI format variants as there are applications using it.
<a class="reference internal" href="#module-configparser" title="configparser: Configuration file parser."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">configparser</span></tt></a> goes a long way to provide support for the largest sensible
set of INI styles available.  The default functionality is mainly dictated by
historical background and it&#8217;s very likely that you will want to customize some
of the features.</p>
<p>The most common way to change the way a specific config parser works is to use
the <a class="reference internal" href="../reference/datamodel.html#object.__init__" title="object.__init__"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">__init__()</span></tt></a> options:</p>
<ul>
<li><p class="first"><em>defaults</em>, default value: <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt></p>
<p>This option accepts a dictionary of key-value pairs which will be initially
put in the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">DEFAULT</span></tt> section.  This makes for an elegant way to support
concise configuration files that don&#8217;t specify values which are the same as
the documented default.</p>
<p>Hint: if you want to specify default values for a specific section, use
<tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">read_dict()</span></tt> before you read the actual file.</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first"><em>dict_type</em>, default value: <a class="reference internal" href="collections.html#collections.OrderedDict" title="collections.OrderedDict"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">collections.OrderedDict</span></tt></a></p>
<p>This option has a major impact on how the mapping protocol will behave and how
the written configuration files look.  With the default ordered
dictionary, every section is stored in the order they were added to the
parser.  Same goes for options within sections.</p>
<p>An alternative dictionary type can be used for example to sort sections and
options on write-back.  You can also use a regular dictionary for performance
reasons.</p>
<p>Please note: there are ways to add a set of key-value pairs in a single
operation.  When you use a regular dictionary in those operations, the order
of the keys may be random.  For example:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">parser</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">configparser</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">ConfigParser</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">parser</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">read_dict</span><span class="p">({</span><span class="s">&#39;section1&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="p">{</span><span class="s">&#39;key1&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s">&#39;value1&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>                               <span class="s">&#39;key2&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s">&#39;value2&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>                               <span class="s">&#39;key3&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s">&#39;value3&#39;</span><span class="p">},</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>                  <span class="s">&#39;section2&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="p">{</span><span class="s">&#39;keyA&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s">&#39;valueA&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>                               <span class="s">&#39;keyB&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s">&#39;valueB&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>                               <span class="s">&#39;keyC&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s">&#39;valueC&#39;</span><span class="p">},</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>                  <span class="s">&#39;section3&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="p">{</span><span class="s">&#39;foo&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s">&#39;x&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>                               <span class="s">&#39;bar&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s">&#39;y&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>                               <span class="s">&#39;baz&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s">&#39;z&#39;</span><span class="p">}</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="p">})</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">parser</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">sections</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="go">[&#39;section3&#39;, &#39;section2&#39;, &#39;section1&#39;]</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">option</span> <span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">option</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">parser</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;section3&#39;</span><span class="p">]]</span>
<span class="go">[&#39;baz&#39;, &#39;foo&#39;, &#39;bar&#39;]</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>In these operations you need to use an ordered dictionary as well:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">collections</span> <span class="k">import</span> <span class="n">OrderedDict</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">parser</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">configparser</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">ConfigParser</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">parser</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">read_dict</span><span class="p">(</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>  <span class="n">OrderedDict</span><span class="p">((</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>    <span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;s1&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>     <span class="n">OrderedDict</span><span class="p">((</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>       <span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;1&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;2&#39;</span><span class="p">),</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>       <span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;3&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;4&#39;</span><span class="p">),</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>       <span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;5&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;6&#39;</span><span class="p">),</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>     <span class="p">))</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>    <span class="p">),</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>    <span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;s2&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>     <span class="n">OrderedDict</span><span class="p">((</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>       <span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;a&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;b&#39;</span><span class="p">),</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>       <span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;c&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;d&#39;</span><span class="p">),</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>       <span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;e&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;f&#39;</span><span class="p">),</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>     <span class="p">))</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>    <span class="p">),</span>
<span class="gp">... </span>  <span class="p">))</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">parser</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">sections</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="go">[&#39;s1&#39;, &#39;s2&#39;]</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">option</span> <span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">option</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">parser</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;s1&#39;</span><span class="p">]]</span>
<span class="go">[&#39;1&#39;, &#39;3&#39;, &#39;5&#39;]</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="p">[</span><span class="n">option</span> <span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">option</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">parser</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;s2&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">values</span><span class="p">()]</span>
<span class="go">[&#39;b&#39;, &#39;d&#39;, &#39;f&#39;]</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</li>
<li><p class="first"><em>allow_no_value</em>, default value: <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">False</span></tt></p>
<p>Some configuration files are known to include settings without values, but
which otherwise conform to the syntax supported by <a class="reference internal" href="#module-configparser" title="configparser: Configuration file parser."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">configparser</span></tt></a>.  The
<em>allow_no_value</em> parameter to the constructor can be used to
indicate that such values should be accepted:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">configparser</span>

<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">sample_config</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s">&quot;&quot;&quot;</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">[mysqld]</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">  user = mysql</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">  pid-file = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">  skip-external-locking</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">  old_passwords = 1</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">  skip-bdb</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">  # we don&#39;t need ACID today</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">  skip-innodb</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">&quot;&quot;&quot;</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">config</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">configparser</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">ConfigParser</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">allow_no_value</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="k">True</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">config</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">read_string</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">sample_config</span><span class="p">)</span>

<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="c"># Settings with values are treated as before:</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">config</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&quot;mysqld&quot;</span><span class="p">][</span><span class="s">&quot;user&quot;</span><span class="p">]</span>
<span class="go">&#39;mysql&#39;</span>

<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="c"># Settings without values provide None:</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">config</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&quot;mysqld&quot;</span><span class="p">][</span><span class="s">&quot;skip-bdb&quot;</span><span class="p">]</span>

<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="c"># Settings which aren&#39;t specified still raise an error:</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">config</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&quot;mysqld&quot;</span><span class="p">][</span><span class="s">&quot;does-not-exist&quot;</span><span class="p">]</span>
<span class="gt">Traceback (most recent call last):</span>
  <span class="c">...</span>
<span class="gr">KeyError</span>: <span class="n">&#39;does-not-exist&#39;</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</li>
<li><p class="first"><em>delimiters</em>, default value: <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">('=',</span> <span class="pre">':')</span></tt></p>
<p>Delimiters are substrings that delimit keys from values within a section. The
first occurrence of a delimiting substring on a line is considered a delimiter.
This means values (but not keys) can contain the delimiters.</p>
<p>See also the <em>space_around_delimiters</em> argument to
<a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.write" title="configparser.ConfigParser.write"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">ConfigParser.write()</span></tt></a>.</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first"><em>comment_prefixes</em>, default value: <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">('#',</span> <span class="pre">';')</span></tt></p>
</li>
<li><p class="first"><em>inline_comment_prefixes</em>, default value: <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt></p>
<p>Comment prefixes are strings that indicate the start of a valid comment within
a config file. <em>comment_prefixes</em> are used only on otherwise empty lines
(optionally indented) whereas <em>inline_comment_prefixes</em> can be used after
every valid value (e.g.  section names, options and empty lines as well). By
default inline comments are disabled and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'#'</span></tt> and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">';'</span></tt> are used as
prefixes for whole line comments.</p>
<div class="versionchanged">
<p><span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 3.2: </span>In previous versions of <a class="reference internal" href="#module-configparser" title="configparser: Configuration file parser."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">configparser</span></tt></a> behaviour matched
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">comment_prefixes=('#',';')</span></tt> and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">inline_comment_prefixes=(';',)</span></tt>.</p>
</div>
<p>Please note that config parsers don&#8217;t support escaping of comment prefixes so
using <em>inline_comment_prefixes</em> may prevent users from specifying option
values with characters used as comment prefixes. When in doubt, avoid setting
<em>inline_comment_prefixes</em>. In any circumstances, the only way of storing
comment prefix characters at the beginning of a line in multiline values is to
interpolate the prefix, for example:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">configparser</span> <span class="k">import</span> <span class="n">ConfigParser</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">ExtendedInterpolation</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">parser</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">ConfigParser</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">interpolation</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">ExtendedInterpolation</span><span class="p">())</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="c"># the default BasicInterpolation could be used as well</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">parser</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">read_string</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&quot;&quot;&quot;</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">[DEFAULT]</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">hash = #</span>
<span class="gp">...</span><span class="s"></span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">[hashes]</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">shebang =</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">  ${hash}!/usr/bin/env python</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">  ${hash} -*- coding: utf-8 -*-</span>
<span class="gp">...</span><span class="s"></span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">extensions =</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">  enabled_extension</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">  another_extension</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">  #disabled_by_comment</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">  yet_another_extension</span>
<span class="gp">...</span><span class="s"></span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">interpolation not necessary = if # is not at line start</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">even in multiline values = line #1</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">  line #2</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">  line #3</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">&quot;&quot;&quot;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="nb">print</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">parser</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;hashes&#39;</span><span class="p">][</span><span class="s">&#39;shebang&#39;</span><span class="p">])</span>

<span class="go">#!/usr/bin/env python</span>
<span class="go"># -*- coding: utf-8 -*-</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="nb">print</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">parser</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;hashes&#39;</span><span class="p">][</span><span class="s">&#39;extensions&#39;</span><span class="p">])</span>

<span class="go">enabled_extension</span>
<span class="go">another_extension</span>
<span class="go">yet_another_extension</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="nb">print</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">parser</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;hashes&#39;</span><span class="p">][</span><span class="s">&#39;interpolation not necessary&#39;</span><span class="p">])</span>
<span class="go">if # is not at line start</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="nb">print</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">parser</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;hashes&#39;</span><span class="p">][</span><span class="s">&#39;even in multiline values&#39;</span><span class="p">])</span>
<span class="go">line #1</span>
<span class="go">line #2</span>
<span class="go">line #3</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</li>
<li><p class="first"><em>strict</em>, default value: <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt></p>
<p>When set to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt>, the parser will not allow for any section or option
duplicates while reading from a single source (using <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">read_file()</span></tt>,
<tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">read_string()</span></tt> or <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">read_dict()</span></tt>). It is recommended to use strict
parsers in new applications.</p>
<div class="versionchanged">
<p><span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 3.2: </span>In previous versions of <a class="reference internal" href="#module-configparser" title="configparser: Configuration file parser."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">configparser</span></tt></a> behaviour matched
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">strict=False</span></tt>.</p>
</div>
</li>
<li><p class="first"><em>empty_lines_in_values</em>, default value: <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt></p>
<p>In config parsers, values can span multiple lines as long as they are
indented more than the key that holds them.  By default parsers also let
empty lines to be parts of values.  At the same time, keys can be arbitrarily
indented themselves to improve readability.  In consequence, when
configuration files get big and complex, it is easy for the user to lose
track of the file structure.  Take for instance:</p>
<div class="highlight-ini"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="k">[Section]</span>
<span class="na">key</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s">multiline</span>
<span class="s">  value with a gotcha</span>

 <span class="na">this</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s">is still a part of the multiline value of &#39;key&#39;</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>This can be especially problematic for the user to see if she&#8217;s using a
proportional font to edit the file.  That is why when your application does
not need values with empty lines, you should consider disallowing them.  This
will make empty lines split keys every time.  In the example above, it would
produce two keys, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">key</span></tt> and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">this</span></tt>.</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first"><em>default_section</em>, default value: <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">configparser.DEFAULTSECT</span></tt> (that is:
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">&quot;DEFAULT&quot;</span></tt>)</p>
<p>The convention of allowing a special section of default values for other
sections or interpolation purposes is a powerful concept of this library,
letting users create complex declarative configurations. This section is
normally called <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">&quot;DEFAULT&quot;</span></tt> but this can be customized to point to any
other valid section name. Some typical values include: <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">&quot;general&quot;</span></tt> or
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">&quot;common&quot;</span></tt>. The name provided is used for recognizing default sections when
reading from any source and is used when writing configuration back to
a file. Its current value can be retrieved using the
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">parser_instance.default_section</span></tt> attribute and may be modified at runtime
(i.e. to convert files from one format to another).</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first"><em>interpolation</em>, default value: <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">configparser.BasicInterpolation</span></tt></p>
<p>Interpolation behaviour may be customized by providing a custom handler
through the <em>interpolation</em> argument. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt> can be used to turn off
interpolation completely, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">ExtendedInterpolation()</span></tt> provides a more
advanced variant inspired by <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">zc.buildout</span></tt>. More on the subject in the
<a class="reference external" href="#interpolation-of-values">dedicated documentation section</a>.
<a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.RawConfigParser" title="configparser.RawConfigParser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">RawConfigParser</span></tt></a> has a default value of <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt>.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>More advanced customization may be achieved by overriding default values of
these parser attributes.  The defaults are defined on the classes, so they
may be overridden by subclasses or by attribute assignment.</p>
<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="configparser.BOOLEAN_STATES">
<tt class="descclassname">configparser.</tt><tt class="descname">BOOLEAN_STATES</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.BOOLEAN_STATES" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>By default when using <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">getboolean()</span></tt>, config parsers consider the
following values <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt>: <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'1'</span></tt>, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'yes'</span></tt>, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'true'</span></tt>, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'on'</span></tt> and the
following values <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">False</span></tt>: <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'0'</span></tt>, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'no'</span></tt>, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'false'</span></tt>, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'off'</span></tt>.  You
can override this by specifying a custom dictionary of strings and their
Boolean outcomes. For example:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">custom</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">configparser</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">ConfigParser</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">custom</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;section1&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">{</span><span class="s">&#39;funky&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s">&#39;nope&#39;</span><span class="p">}</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">custom</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;section1&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">getboolean</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;funky&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="gt">Traceback (most recent call last):</span>
<span class="c">...</span>
<span class="gr">ValueError</span>: <span class="n">Not a boolean: nope</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">custom</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">BOOLEAN_STATES</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">{</span><span class="s">&#39;sure&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="k">True</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;nope&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="k">False</span><span class="p">}</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">custom</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;section1&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">getboolean</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;funky&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="go">False</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Other typical Boolean pairs include <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">accept</span></tt>/<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">reject</span></tt> or
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">enabled</span></tt>/<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">disabled</span></tt>.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="configparser.optionxform">
<tt class="descclassname">configparser.</tt><tt class="descname">optionxform</tt><big>(</big><em>option</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.optionxform" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>This method transforms option names on every read, get, or set
operation.  The default converts the name to lowercase.  This also
means that when a configuration file gets written, all keys will be
lowercase.  Override this method if that&#8217;s unsuitable.
For example:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">config</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s">&quot;&quot;&quot;</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">[Section1]</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">Key = Value</span>
<span class="gp">...</span><span class="s"></span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">[Section2]</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">AnotherKey = Value</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">&quot;&quot;&quot;</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">typical</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">configparser</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">ConfigParser</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">typical</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">read_string</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">config</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="nb">list</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">typical</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;Section1&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">keys</span><span class="p">())</span>
<span class="go">[&#39;key&#39;]</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="nb">list</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">typical</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;Section2&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">keys</span><span class="p">())</span>
<span class="go">[&#39;anotherkey&#39;]</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">custom</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">configparser</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">RawConfigParser</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">custom</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">optionxform</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="k">lambda</span> <span class="n">option</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">option</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">custom</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">read_string</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">config</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="nb">list</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">custom</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;Section1&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">keys</span><span class="p">())</span>
<span class="go">[&#39;Key&#39;]</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="nb">list</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">custom</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s">&#39;Section2&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">keys</span><span class="p">())</span>
<span class="go">[&#39;AnotherKey&#39;]</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="attribute">
<dt id="configparser.SECTCRE">
<tt class="descclassname">configparser.</tt><tt class="descname">SECTCRE</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.SECTCRE" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>A compiled regular expression used to parse section headers. The default
matches <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">[section]</span></tt> to the name <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">&quot;section&quot;</span></tt>. Whitespace is considered part
of the section name, thus <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">[</span>&nbsp; <span class="pre">larch</span>&nbsp; <span class="pre">]</span></tt> will be read as a section of name
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">&quot;</span>&nbsp; <span class="pre">larch</span>&nbsp; <span class="pre">&quot;</span></tt>. Override this attribute if that&#8217;s unsuitable.  For example:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">config</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s">&quot;&quot;&quot;</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">[Section 1]</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">option = value</span>
<span class="gp">...</span><span class="s"></span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">[  Section 2  ]</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">another = val</span>
<span class="gp">... </span><span class="s">&quot;&quot;&quot;</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">typical</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">ConfigParser</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">typical</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">read_string</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">config</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">typical</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">sections</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="go">[&#39;Section 1&#39;, &#39;  Section 2  &#39;]</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">custom</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">ConfigParser</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">custom</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">SECTCRE</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">re</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">compile</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">r&quot;\[ *(?P&lt;header&gt;[^]]+?) *\]&quot;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">custom</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">read_string</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">config</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">custom</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">sections</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="go">[&#39;Section 1&#39;, &#39;Section 2&#39;]</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<div class="admonition note">
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
<p class="last">While ConfigParser objects also use an <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">OPTCRE</span></tt> attribute for recognizing
option lines, it&#8217;s not recommended to override it because that would
interfere with constructor options <em>allow_no_value</em> and <em>delimiters</em>.</p>
</div>
</dd></dl>

</div>
<div class="section" id="legacy-api-examples">
<h2>14.2.8. Legacy API Examples<a class="headerlink" href="#legacy-api-examples" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Mainly because of backwards compatibility concerns, <a class="reference internal" href="#module-configparser" title="configparser: Configuration file parser."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">configparser</span></tt></a>
provides also a legacy API with explicit <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">get</span></tt>/<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">set</span></tt> methods.  While there
are valid use cases for the methods outlined below, mapping protocol access is
preferred for new projects.  The legacy API is at times more advanced,
low-level and downright counterintuitive.</p>
<p>An example of writing to a configuration file:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">configparser</span>

<span class="n">config</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">configparser</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">RawConfigParser</span><span class="p">()</span>

<span class="c"># Please note that using RawConfigParser&#39;s set functions, you can assign</span>
<span class="c"># non-string values to keys internally, but will receive an error when</span>
<span class="c"># attempting to write to a file or when you get it in non-raw mode. Setting</span>
<span class="c"># values using the mapping protocol or ConfigParser&#39;s set() does not allow</span>
<span class="c"># such assignments to take place.</span>
<span class="n">config</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">add_section</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;Section1&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">config</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;Section1&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;an_int&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;15&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">config</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;Section1&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;a_bool&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;true&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">config</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;Section1&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;a_float&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;3.1415&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">config</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;Section1&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;baz&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;fun&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">config</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;Section1&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;bar&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;Python&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">config</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;Section1&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;foo&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;%(bar)s is %(baz)s!&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>

<span class="c"># Writing our configuration file to &#39;example.cfg&#39;</span>
<span class="k">with</span> <span class="nb">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;example.cfg&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;w&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">configfile</span><span class="p">:</span>
    <span class="n">config</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">write</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">configfile</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>An example of reading the configuration file again:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">configparser</span>

<span class="n">config</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">configparser</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">RawConfigParser</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="n">config</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">read</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;example.cfg&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>

<span class="c"># getfloat() raises an exception if the value is not a float</span>
<span class="c"># getint() and getboolean() also do this for their respective types</span>
<span class="n">a_float</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">config</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">getfloat</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;Section1&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;a_float&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">an_int</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">config</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">getint</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;Section1&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;an_int&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="nb">print</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">a_float</span> <span class="o">+</span> <span class="n">an_int</span><span class="p">)</span>

<span class="c"># Notice that the next output does not interpolate &#39;%(bar)s&#39; or &#39;%(baz)s&#39;.</span>
<span class="c"># This is because we are using a RawConfigParser().</span>
<span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">config</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">getboolean</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;Section1&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;a_bool&#39;</span><span class="p">):</span>
    <span class="nb">print</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">config</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">get</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;Section1&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;foo&#39;</span><span class="p">))</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>To get interpolation, use <a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.ConfigParser" title="configparser.ConfigParser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">ConfigParser</span></tt></a>:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">configparser</span>

<span class="n">cfg</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">configparser</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">ConfigParser</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="n">cfg</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">read</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;example.cfg&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>

<span class="c"># Set the optional *raw* argument of get() to True if you wish to disable</span>
<span class="c"># interpolation in a single get operation.</span>
<span class="nb">print</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">cfg</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">get</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;Section1&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;foo&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">raw</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="k">False</span><span class="p">))</span> <span class="c"># -&gt; &quot;Python is fun!&quot;</span>
<span class="nb">print</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">cfg</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">get</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;Section1&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;foo&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">raw</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="k">True</span><span class="p">))</span>  <span class="c"># -&gt; &quot;%(bar)s is %(baz)s!&quot;</span>

<span class="c"># The optional *vars* argument is a dict with members that will take</span>
<span class="c"># precedence in interpolation.</span>
<span class="nb">print</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">cfg</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">get</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;Section1&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;foo&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="nb">vars</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">{</span><span class="s">&#39;bar&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s">&#39;Documentation&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
                                          <span class="s">&#39;baz&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s">&#39;evil&#39;</span><span class="p">}))</span>

<span class="c"># The optional *fallback* argument can be used to provide a fallback value</span>
<span class="nb">print</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">cfg</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">get</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;Section1&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;foo&#39;</span><span class="p">))</span>
      <span class="c"># -&gt; &quot;Python is fun!&quot;</span>

<span class="nb">print</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">cfg</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">get</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;Section1&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;foo&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">fallback</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&#39;Monty is not.&#39;</span><span class="p">))</span>
      <span class="c"># -&gt; &quot;Python is fun!&quot;</span>

<span class="nb">print</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">cfg</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">get</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;Section1&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;monster&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">fallback</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&#39;No such things as monsters.&#39;</span><span class="p">))</span>
      <span class="c"># -&gt; &quot;No such things as monsters.&quot;</span>

<span class="c"># A bare print(cfg.get(&#39;Section1&#39;, &#39;monster&#39;)) would raise NoOptionError</span>
<span class="c"># but we can also use:</span>

<span class="nb">print</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">cfg</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">get</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;Section1&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;monster&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">fallback</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="k">None</span><span class="p">))</span>
      <span class="c"># -&gt; None</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Default values are available in both types of ConfigParsers.  They are used in
interpolation if an option used is not defined elsewhere.</p>
<div class="highlight-python3"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">configparser</span>

<span class="c"># New instance with &#39;bar&#39; and &#39;baz&#39; defaulting to &#39;Life&#39; and &#39;hard&#39; each</span>
<span class="n">config</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">configparser</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">ConfigParser</span><span class="p">({</span><span class="s">&#39;bar&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s">&#39;Life&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;baz&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s">&#39;hard&#39;</span><span class="p">})</span>
<span class="n">config</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">read</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;example.cfg&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>

<span class="nb">print</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">config</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">get</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;Section1&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;foo&#39;</span><span class="p">))</span> <span class="c"># -&gt; &quot;Python is fun!&quot;</span>
<span class="n">config</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">remove_option</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;Section1&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;bar&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">config</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">remove_option</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;Section1&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;baz&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="nb">print</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">config</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">get</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;Section1&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">&#39;foo&#39;</span><span class="p">))</span> <span class="c"># -&gt; &quot;Life is hard!&quot;</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="configparser-objects">
<span id="id10"></span><h2>14.2.9. ConfigParser Objects<a class="headerlink" href="#configparser-objects" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<dl class="class">
<dt id="configparser.ConfigParser">
<em class="property">class </em><tt class="descclassname">configparser.</tt><tt class="descname">ConfigParser</tt><big>(</big><em>defaults=None</em>, <em>dict_type=collections.OrderedDict</em>, <em>allow_no_value=False</em>, <em>delimiters=('='</em>, <em>':')</em>, <em>comment_prefixes=('#'</em>, <em>';')</em>, <em>inline_comment_prefixes=None</em>, <em>strict=True</em>, <em>empty_lines_in_values=True</em>, <em>default_section=configparser.DEFAULTSECT</em>, <em>interpolation=BasicInterpolation()</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.ConfigParser" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>The main configuration parser.  When <em>defaults</em> is given, it is initialized
into the dictionary of intrinsic defaults.  When <em>dict_type</em> is given, it
will be used to create the dictionary objects for the list of sections, for
the options within a section, and for the default values.</p>
<p>When <em>delimiters</em> is given, it is used as the set of substrings that
divide keys from values.  When <em>comment_prefixes</em> is given, it will be used
as the set of substrings that prefix comments in otherwise empty lines.
Comments can be indented. When <em>inline_comment_prefixes</em> is given, it will be
used as the set of substrings that prefix comments in non-empty lines.</p>
<p>When <em>strict</em> is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt> (the default), the parser won&#8217;t allow for
any section or option duplicates while reading from a single source (file,
string or dictionary), raising <a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.DuplicateSectionError" title="configparser.DuplicateSectionError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">DuplicateSectionError</span></tt></a> or
<a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.DuplicateOptionError" title="configparser.DuplicateOptionError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">DuplicateOptionError</span></tt></a>.  When <em>empty_lines_in_values</em> is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">False</span></tt>
(default: <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt>), each empty line marks the end of an option.  Otherwise,
internal empty lines of a multiline option are kept as part of the value.
When <em>allow_no_value</em> is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt> (default: <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">False</span></tt>), options without
values are accepted; the value held for these is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt> and they are
serialized without the trailing delimiter.</p>
<p>When <em>default_section</em> is given, it specifies the name for the special
section holding default values for other sections and interpolation purposes
(normally named <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">&quot;DEFAULT&quot;</span></tt>). This value can be retrieved and changed on
runtime using the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">default_section</span></tt> instance attribute.</p>
<p>Interpolation behaviour may be customized by providing a custom handler
through the <em>interpolation</em> argument. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt> can be used to turn off
interpolation completely, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">ExtendedInterpolation()</span></tt> provides a more
advanced variant inspired by <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">zc.buildout</span></tt>. More on the subject in the
<a class="reference external" href="#interpolation-of-values">dedicated documentation section</a>.</p>
<p>All option names used in interpolation will be passed through the
<a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.optionxform" title="configparser.optionxform"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">optionxform()</span></tt></a> method just like any other option name reference.  For
example, using the default implementation of <a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.optionxform" title="configparser.optionxform"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">optionxform()</span></tt></a> (which
converts option names to lower case), the values <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">foo</span> <span class="pre">%(bar)s</span></tt> and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">foo</span>
<span class="pre">%(BAR)s</span></tt> are equivalent.</p>
<div class="versionchanged">
<p><span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 3.1: </span>The default <em>dict_type</em> is <a class="reference internal" href="collections.html#collections.OrderedDict" title="collections.OrderedDict"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">collections.OrderedDict</span></tt></a>.</p>
</div>
<div class="versionchanged">
<p><span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 3.2: </span><em>allow_no_value</em>, <em>delimiters</em>, <em>comment_prefixes</em>, <em>strict</em>,
<em>empty_lines_in_values</em>, <em>default_section</em> and <em>interpolation</em> were
added.</p>
</div>
<dl class="method">
<dt id="configparser.ConfigParser.defaults">
<tt class="descname">defaults</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.defaults" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return a dictionary containing the instance-wide defaults.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="configparser.ConfigParser.sections">
<tt class="descname">sections</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.sections" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return a list of the sections available; the <em>default section</em> is not
included in the list.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="configparser.ConfigParser.add_section">
<tt class="descname">add_section</tt><big>(</big><em>section</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.add_section" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Add a section named <em>section</em> to the instance.  If a section by the given
name already exists, <a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.DuplicateSectionError" title="configparser.DuplicateSectionError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">DuplicateSectionError</span></tt></a> is raised.  If the
<em>default section</em> name is passed, <a class="reference internal" href="exceptions.html#ValueError" title="ValueError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">ValueError</span></tt></a> is raised.  The name
of the section must be a string; if not, <a class="reference internal" href="exceptions.html#TypeError" title="TypeError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">TypeError</span></tt></a> is raised.</p>
<div class="versionchanged">
<p><span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 3.2: </span>Non-string section names raise <a class="reference internal" href="exceptions.html#TypeError" title="TypeError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">TypeError</span></tt></a>.</p>
</div>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="configparser.ConfigParser.has_section">
<tt class="descname">has_section</tt><big>(</big><em>section</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.has_section" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Indicates whether the named <em>section</em> is present in the configuration.
The <em>default section</em> is not acknowledged.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="configparser.ConfigParser.options">
<tt class="descname">options</tt><big>(</big><em>section</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.options" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return a list of options available in the specified <em>section</em>.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="configparser.ConfigParser.has_option">
<tt class="descname">has_option</tt><big>(</big><em>section</em>, <em>option</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.has_option" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>If the given <em>section</em> exists, and contains the given <em>option</em>, return
<a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#True" title="True"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt></a>; otherwise return <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#False" title="False"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">False</span></tt></a>. If the specified
<em>section</em> is <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#None" title="None"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt></a> or an empty string, DEFAULT is assumed.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="configparser.ConfigParser.read">
<tt class="descname">read</tt><big>(</big><em>filenames</em>, <em>encoding=None</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.read" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Attempt to read and parse a list of filenames, returning a list of
filenames which were successfully parsed.  If <em>filenames</em> is a string, it
is treated as a single filename.  If a file named in <em>filenames</em> cannot
be opened, that file will be ignored.  This is designed so that you can
specify a list of potential configuration file locations (for example,
the current directory, the user&#8217;s home directory, and some system-wide
directory), and all existing configuration files in the list will be
read.  If none of the named files exist, the <a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.ConfigParser" title="configparser.ConfigParser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">ConfigParser</span></tt></a>
instance will contain an empty dataset.  An application which requires
initial values to be loaded from a file should load the required file or
files using <a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.read_file" title="configparser.ConfigParser.read_file"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">read_file()</span></tt></a> before calling <a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.read" title="configparser.ConfigParser.read"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">read()</span></tt></a> for any
optional files:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">configparser</span><span class="o">,</span> <span class="nn">os</span>

<span class="n">config</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">configparser</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">ConfigParser</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="n">config</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">read_file</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;defaults.cfg&#39;</span><span class="p">))</span>
<span class="n">config</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">read</span><span class="p">([</span><span class="s">&#39;site.cfg&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">os</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">path</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">expanduser</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">&#39;~/.myapp.cfg&#39;</span><span class="p">)],</span>
            <span class="n">encoding</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&#39;cp1250&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<div class="versionadded">
<p><span class="versionmodified">New in version 3.2: </span>The <em>encoding</em> parameter.  Previously, all files were read using the
default encoding for <a class="reference internal" href="functions.html#open" title="open"><tt class="xref py py-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">open()</span></tt></a>.</p>
</div>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="configparser.ConfigParser.read_file">
<tt class="descname">read_file</tt><big>(</big><em>f</em>, <em>source=None</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.read_file" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Read and parse configuration data from <em>f</em> which must be an iterable
yielding Unicode strings (for example files opened in text mode).</p>
<p>Optional argument <em>source</em> specifies the name of the file being read.  If
not given and <em>f</em> has a <tt class="xref py py-attr docutils literal"><span class="pre">name</span></tt> attribute, that is used for
<em>source</em>; the default is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'&lt;???&gt;'</span></tt>.</p>
<div class="versionadded">
<p><span class="versionmodified">New in version 3.2: </span>Replaces <a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.readfp" title="configparser.ConfigParser.readfp"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">readfp()</span></tt></a>.</p>
</div>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="configparser.ConfigParser.read_string">
<tt class="descname">read_string</tt><big>(</big><em>string</em>, <em>source='&lt;string&gt;'</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.read_string" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Parse configuration data from a string.</p>
<p>Optional argument <em>source</em> specifies a context-specific name of the
string passed.  If not given, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'&lt;string&gt;'</span></tt> is used.  This should
commonly be a filesystem path or a URL.</p>
<div class="versionadded">
<p><span class="versionmodified">New in version 3.2.</span></p>
</div>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="configparser.ConfigParser.read_dict">
<tt class="descname">read_dict</tt><big>(</big><em>dictionary</em>, <em>source='&lt;dict&gt;'</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.read_dict" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Load configuration from any object that provides a dict-like <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">items()</span></tt>
method.  Keys are section names, values are dictionaries with keys and
values that should be present in the section.  If the used dictionary
type preserves order, sections and their keys will be added in order.
Values are automatically converted to strings.</p>
<p>Optional argument <em>source</em> specifies a context-specific name of the
dictionary passed.  If not given, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">&lt;dict&gt;</span></tt> is used.</p>
<p>This method can be used to copy state between parsers.</p>
<div class="versionadded">
<p><span class="versionmodified">New in version 3.2.</span></p>
</div>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="configparser.ConfigParser.get">
<tt class="descname">get</tt><big>(</big><em>section</em>, <em>option</em>, <em>*</em>, <em>raw=False</em>, <em>vars=None</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>fallback</em><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.get" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Get an <em>option</em> value for the named <em>section</em>.  If <em>vars</em> is provided, it
must be a dictionary.  The <em>option</em> is looked up in <em>vars</em> (if provided),
<em>section</em>, and in <em>DEFAULTSECT</em> in that order.  If the key is not found
and <em>fallback</em> is provided, it is used as a fallback value.  <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt> can
be provided as a <em>fallback</em> value.</p>
<p>All the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'%'</span></tt> interpolations are expanded in the return values, unless
the <em>raw</em> argument is true.  Values for interpolation keys are looked up
in the same manner as the option.</p>
<div class="versionchanged">
<p><span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 3.2: </span>Arguments <em>raw</em>, <em>vars</em> and <em>fallback</em> are keyword only to protect
users from trying to use the third argument as the <em>fallback</em> fallback
(especially when using the mapping protocol).</p>
</div>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="configparser.ConfigParser.getint">
<tt class="descname">getint</tt><big>(</big><em>section</em>, <em>option</em>, <em>*</em>, <em>raw=False</em>, <em>vars=None</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>fallback</em><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.getint" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>A convenience method which coerces the <em>option</em> in the specified <em>section</em>
to an integer.  See <a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.get" title="configparser.ConfigParser.get"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get()</span></tt></a> for explanation of <em>raw</em>, <em>vars</em> and
<em>fallback</em>.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="configparser.ConfigParser.getfloat">
<tt class="descname">getfloat</tt><big>(</big><em>section</em>, <em>option</em>, <em>*</em>, <em>raw=False</em>, <em>vars=None</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>fallback</em><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.getfloat" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>A convenience method which coerces the <em>option</em> in the specified <em>section</em>
to a floating point number.  See <a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.get" title="configparser.ConfigParser.get"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get()</span></tt></a> for explanation of <em>raw</em>,
<em>vars</em> and <em>fallback</em>.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="configparser.ConfigParser.getboolean">
<tt class="descname">getboolean</tt><big>(</big><em>section</em>, <em>option</em>, <em>*</em>, <em>raw=False</em>, <em>vars=None</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>fallback</em><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.getboolean" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>A convenience method which coerces the <em>option</em> in the specified <em>section</em>
to a Boolean value.  Note that the accepted values for the option are
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'1'</span></tt>, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'yes'</span></tt>, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'true'</span></tt>, and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'on'</span></tt>, which cause this method to
return <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt>, and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'0'</span></tt>, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'no'</span></tt>, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'false'</span></tt>, and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'off'</span></tt>, which
cause it to return <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">False</span></tt>.  These string values are checked in a
case-insensitive manner.  Any other value will cause it to raise
<a class="reference internal" href="exceptions.html#ValueError" title="ValueError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">ValueError</span></tt></a>.  See <a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.get" title="configparser.ConfigParser.get"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get()</span></tt></a> for explanation of <em>raw</em>, <em>vars</em> and
<em>fallback</em>.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="configparser.ConfigParser.items">
<tt class="descname">items</tt><big>(</big><em>raw=False</em>, <em>vars=None</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.items" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dt>
<tt class="descname">items</tt><big>(</big><em>section</em>, <em>raw=False</em>, <em>vars=None</em><big>)</big></dt>
<dd><p>When <em>section</em> is not given, return a list of <em>section_name</em>,
<em>section_proxy</em> pairs, including DEFAULTSECT.</p>
<p>Otherwise, return a list of <em>name</em>, <em>value</em> pairs for the options in the
given <em>section</em>.  Optional arguments have the same meaning as for the
<a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.get" title="configparser.ConfigParser.get"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get()</span></tt></a> method.</p>
<div class="versionchanged">
<p><span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 3.2: </span>Items present in <em>vars</em> no longer appear in the result. The previous
behaviour mixed actual parser options with variables provided for
interpolation.</p>
</div>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="configparser.ConfigParser.set">
<tt class="descname">set</tt><big>(</big><em>section</em>, <em>option</em>, <em>value</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.set" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>If the given section exists, set the given option to the specified value;
otherwise raise <a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.NoSectionError" title="configparser.NoSectionError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">NoSectionError</span></tt></a>.  <em>option</em> and <em>value</em> must be
strings; if not, <a class="reference internal" href="exceptions.html#TypeError" title="TypeError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">TypeError</span></tt></a> is raised.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="configparser.ConfigParser.write">
<tt class="descname">write</tt><big>(</big><em>fileobject</em>, <em>space_around_delimiters=True</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.write" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Write a representation of the configuration to the specified <a class="reference internal" href="../glossary.html#term-file-object"><em class="xref std std-term">file
object</em></a>, which must be opened in text mode (accepting strings).  This
representation can be parsed by a future <a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.read" title="configparser.ConfigParser.read"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">read()</span></tt></a> call.  If
<em>space_around_delimiters</em> is true, delimiters between
keys and values are surrounded by spaces.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="configparser.ConfigParser.remove_option">
<tt class="descname">remove_option</tt><big>(</big><em>section</em>, <em>option</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.remove_option" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Remove the specified <em>option</em> from the specified <em>section</em>.  If the
section does not exist, raise <a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.NoSectionError" title="configparser.NoSectionError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">NoSectionError</span></tt></a>.  If the option
existed to be removed, return <a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#True" title="True"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt></a>; otherwise return
<a class="reference internal" href="constants.html#False" title="False"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">False</span></tt></a>.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="configparser.ConfigParser.remove_section">
<tt class="descname">remove_section</tt><big>(</big><em>section</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.remove_section" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Remove the specified <em>section</em> from the configuration.  If the section in
fact existed, return <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">True</span></tt>.  Otherwise return <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">False</span></tt>.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="configparser.ConfigParser.optionxform">
<tt class="descname">optionxform</tt><big>(</big><em>option</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.optionxform" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Transforms the option name <em>option</em> as found in an input file or as passed
in by client code to the form that should be used in the internal
structures.  The default implementation returns a lower-case version of
<em>option</em>; subclasses may override this or client code can set an attribute
of this name on instances to affect this behavior.</p>
<p>You don&#8217;t need to subclass the parser to use this method, you can also
set it on an instance, to a function that takes a string argument and
returns a string.  Setting it to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">str</span></tt>, for example, would make option
names case sensitive:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="n">cfgparser</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">ConfigParser</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="n">cfgparser</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">optionxform</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="nb">str</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Note that when reading configuration files, whitespace around the option
names is stripped before <a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.optionxform" title="configparser.optionxform"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">optionxform()</span></tt></a> is called.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="configparser.ConfigParser.readfp">
<tt class="descname">readfp</tt><big>(</big><em>fp</em>, <em>filename=None</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.readfp" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><div class="deprecated">
<p><span class="versionmodified">Deprecated since version 3.2: </span>Use <a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.read_file" title="configparser.ConfigParser.read_file"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">read_file()</span></tt></a> instead.</p>
</div>
<div class="versionchanged">
<p><span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 3.2: </span><a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.readfp" title="configparser.ConfigParser.readfp"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">readfp()</span></tt></a> now iterates on <em>f</em> instead of calling <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">f.readline()</span></tt>.</p>
</div>
<p>For existing code calling <a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.ConfigParser.readfp" title="configparser.ConfigParser.readfp"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">readfp()</span></tt></a> with arguments which don&#8217;t
support iteration, the following generator may be used as a wrapper
around the file-like object:</p>
<div class="highlight-python3"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">readline_generator</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">f</span><span class="p">):</span>
    <span class="n">line</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">f</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">readline</span><span class="p">()</span>
    <span class="k">while</span> <span class="n">line</span><span class="p">:</span>
        <span class="k">yield</span> <span class="n">line</span>
        <span class="n">line</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">f</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">readline</span><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Instead of <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">parser.readfp(f)</span></tt> use
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">parser.read_file(readline_generator(f))</span></tt>.</p>
</dd></dl>

</dd></dl>

<dl class="data">
<dt id="configparser.MAX_INTERPOLATION_DEPTH">
<tt class="descclassname">configparser.</tt><tt class="descname">MAX_INTERPOLATION_DEPTH</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.MAX_INTERPOLATION_DEPTH" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>The maximum depth for recursive interpolation for <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">get()</span></tt> when the <em>raw</em>
parameter is false.  This is relevant only when the default <em>interpolation</em>
is used.</p>
</dd></dl>

</div>
<div class="section" id="rawconfigparser-objects">
<span id="id12"></span><h2>14.2.10. RawConfigParser Objects<a class="headerlink" href="#rawconfigparser-objects" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<dl class="class">
<dt id="configparser.RawConfigParser">
<em class="property">class </em><tt class="descclassname">configparser.</tt><tt class="descname">RawConfigParser</tt><big>(</big><em>defaults=None</em>, <em>dict_type=collections.OrderedDict</em>, <em>allow_no_value=False</em>, <em>*</em>, <em>delimiters=('='</em>, <em>':')</em>, <em>comment_prefixes=('#'</em>, <em>';')</em>, <em>inline_comment_prefixes=None</em>, <em>strict=True</em>, <em>empty_lines_in_values=True</em>, <em>default_section=configparser.DEFAULTSECT</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>interpolation</em><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.RawConfigParser" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Legacy variant of the <a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.ConfigParser" title="configparser.ConfigParser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">ConfigParser</span></tt></a> with interpolation disabled
by default and unsafe <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">add_section</span></tt> and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">set</span></tt> methods.</p>
<div class="admonition note">
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
<p class="last">Consider using <a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.ConfigParser" title="configparser.ConfigParser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">ConfigParser</span></tt></a> instead which checks types of
the values to be stored internally. If you don&#8217;t want interpolation, you
can use <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">ConfigParser(interpolation=None)</span></tt>.</p>
</div>
<dl class="method">
<dt id="configparser.RawConfigParser.add_section">
<tt class="descname">add_section</tt><big>(</big><em>section</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.RawConfigParser.add_section" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Add a section named <em>section</em> to the instance.  If a section by the given
name already exists, <a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.DuplicateSectionError" title="configparser.DuplicateSectionError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">DuplicateSectionError</span></tt></a> is raised.  If the
<em>default section</em> name is passed, <a class="reference internal" href="exceptions.html#ValueError" title="ValueError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">ValueError</span></tt></a> is raised.</p>
<p>Type of <em>section</em> is not checked which lets users create non-string named
sections. This behaviour is unsupported and may cause internal errors.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="method">
<dt id="configparser.RawConfigParser.set">
<tt class="descname">set</tt><big>(</big><em>section</em>, <em>option</em>, <em>value</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.RawConfigParser.set" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>If the given section exists, set the given option to the specified value;
otherwise raise <a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.NoSectionError" title="configparser.NoSectionError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">NoSectionError</span></tt></a>.  While it is possible to use
<a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.RawConfigParser" title="configparser.RawConfigParser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">RawConfigParser</span></tt></a> (or <a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.ConfigParser" title="configparser.ConfigParser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal"><span class="pre">ConfigParser</span></tt></a> with <em>raw</em> parameters
set to true) for <em>internal</em> storage of non-string values, full
functionality (including interpolation and output to files) can only be
achieved using string values.</p>
<p>This method lets users assign non-string values to keys internally.  This
behaviour is unsupported and will cause errors when attempting to write
to a file or get it in non-raw mode.  <strong>Use the mapping protocol API</strong>
which does not allow such assignments to take place.</p>
</dd></dl>

</dd></dl>

</div>
<div class="section" id="exceptions">
<h2>14.2.11. Exceptions<a class="headerlink" href="#exceptions" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<dl class="exception">
<dt id="configparser.Error">
<em class="property">exception </em><tt class="descclassname">configparser.</tt><tt class="descname">Error</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.Error" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Base class for all other <a class="reference internal" href="#module-configparser" title="configparser: Configuration file parser."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">configparser</span></tt></a> exceptions.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="exception">
<dt id="configparser.NoSectionError">
<em class="property">exception </em><tt class="descclassname">configparser.</tt><tt class="descname">NoSectionError</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.NoSectionError" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Exception raised when a specified section is not found.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="exception">
<dt id="configparser.DuplicateSectionError">
<em class="property">exception </em><tt class="descclassname">configparser.</tt><tt class="descname">DuplicateSectionError</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.DuplicateSectionError" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Exception raised if <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">add_section()</span></tt> is called with the name of a section
that is already present or in strict parsers when a section if found more
than once in a single input file, string or dictionary.</p>
<div class="versionadded">
<p><span class="versionmodified">New in version 3.2: </span>Optional <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">source</span></tt> and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">lineno</span></tt> attributes and arguments to
<a class="reference internal" href="../reference/datamodel.html#object.__init__" title="object.__init__"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">__init__()</span></tt></a> were added.</p>
</div>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="exception">
<dt id="configparser.DuplicateOptionError">
<em class="property">exception </em><tt class="descclassname">configparser.</tt><tt class="descname">DuplicateOptionError</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.DuplicateOptionError" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Exception raised by strict parsers if a single option appears twice during
reading from a single file, string or dictionary. This catches misspellings
and case sensitivity-related errors, e.g. a dictionary may have two keys
representing the same case-insensitive configuration key.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="exception">
<dt id="configparser.NoOptionError">
<em class="property">exception </em><tt class="descclassname">configparser.</tt><tt class="descname">NoOptionError</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.NoOptionError" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Exception raised when a specified option is not found in the specified
section.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="exception">
<dt id="configparser.InterpolationError">
<em class="property">exception </em><tt class="descclassname">configparser.</tt><tt class="descname">InterpolationError</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.InterpolationError" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Base class for exceptions raised when problems occur performing string
interpolation.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="exception">
<dt id="configparser.InterpolationDepthError">
<em class="property">exception </em><tt class="descclassname">configparser.</tt><tt class="descname">InterpolationDepthError</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.InterpolationDepthError" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Exception raised when string interpolation cannot be completed because the
number of iterations exceeds <a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.MAX_INTERPOLATION_DEPTH" title="configparser.MAX_INTERPOLATION_DEPTH"><tt class="xref py py-const docutils literal"><span class="pre">MAX_INTERPOLATION_DEPTH</span></tt></a>.  Subclass of
<a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.InterpolationError" title="configparser.InterpolationError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">InterpolationError</span></tt></a>.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="exception">
<dt id="configparser.InterpolationMissingOptionError">
<em class="property">exception </em><tt class="descclassname">configparser.</tt><tt class="descname">InterpolationMissingOptionError</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.InterpolationMissingOptionError" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Exception raised when an option referenced from a value does not exist.
Subclass of <a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.InterpolationError" title="configparser.InterpolationError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">InterpolationError</span></tt></a>.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="exception">
<dt id="configparser.InterpolationSyntaxError">
<em class="property">exception </em><tt class="descclassname">configparser.</tt><tt class="descname">InterpolationSyntaxError</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.InterpolationSyntaxError" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Exception raised when the source text into which substitutions are made does
not conform to the required syntax.  Subclass of <a class="reference internal" href="#configparser.InterpolationError" title="configparser.InterpolationError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">InterpolationError</span></tt></a>.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="exception">
<dt id="configparser.MissingSectionHeaderError">
<em class="property">exception </em><tt class="descclassname">configparser.</tt><tt class="descname">MissingSectionHeaderError</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.MissingSectionHeaderError" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Exception raised when attempting to parse a file which has no section
headers.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="exception">
<dt id="configparser.ParsingError">
<em class="property">exception </em><tt class="descclassname">configparser.</tt><tt class="descname">ParsingError</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#configparser.ParsingError" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Exception raised when errors occur attempting to parse a file.</p>
<div class="versionchanged">
<p><span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 3.2: </span>The <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">filename</span></tt> attribute and <a class="reference internal" href="../reference/datamodel.html#object.__init__" title="object.__init__"><tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal"><span class="pre">__init__()</span></tt></a> argument were renamed to
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">source</span></tt> for consistency.</p>
</div>
</dd></dl>

<p class="rubric">Footnotes</p>
<table class="docutils footnote" frame="void" id="id13" rules="none">
<colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td class="label">[1]</td><td><em>(<a class="fn-backref" href="#id1">1</a>, <a class="fn-backref" href="#id2">2</a>, <a class="fn-backref" href="#id3">3</a>, <a class="fn-backref" href="#id4">4</a>, <a class="fn-backref" href="#id5">5</a>, <a class="fn-backref" href="#id6">6</a>, <a class="fn-backref" href="#id7">7</a>, <a class="fn-backref" href="#id8">8</a>, <a class="fn-backref" href="#id9">9</a>)</em> Config parsers allow for heavy customization.  If you are interested in
changing the behaviour outlined by the footnote reference, consult the
<a class="reference internal" href="#customizing-parser-behaviour">Customizing Parser Behaviour</a> section.</td></tr>
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<li><a class="reference internal" href="#">14.2. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">configparser</span></tt> &#8212; Configuration file parser</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#quick-start">14.2.1. Quick Start</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#supported-datatypes">14.2.2. Supported Datatypes</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#fallback-values">14.2.3. Fallback Values</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#supported-ini-file-structure">14.2.4. Supported INI File Structure</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#interpolation-of-values">14.2.5. Interpolation of values</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#mapping-protocol-access">14.2.6. Mapping Protocol Access</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#customizing-parser-behaviour">14.2.7. Customizing Parser Behaviour</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#legacy-api-examples">14.2.8. Legacy API Examples</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#configparser-objects">14.2.9. ConfigParser Objects</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#rawconfigparser-objects">14.2.10. RawConfigParser Objects</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#exceptions">14.2.11. Exceptions</a></li>
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